Cricket's Historians

270 A Spate of County Histories (Lancashire), a Methodist minister, had taken over from Charles Oliver as compiler of the Record Section of the county yearbook in 1987 and since 1996 has been the yearbook editor. A member of the ACS Committee from 1988 to 2003 he was the Association’s chairman for ten years. Over the last decade Lorimer has been responsible for the compilation and/ or publication of a number of books relating to Lancashire. He is the Lancashire C.C.C. librarian and is also heavily involved with the Cricket Memorabilia Society. Keith Gerrish (Gloucestershire) is both the current county scorer and editor of the yearbook. He was appointed as scorer in 1996, after retiring. He was the editor and compiler of the First Class Counties Second Eleven Annual, taking over in 2004 following the death of Les Hatton. Gerrish retired as the annual’s editor after the appearance of the 2010 edition.. Michael Hill retired as editor of the Somerset Yearbook after the 2003 edition and Richard Walsh took over for 2004. Eddie Lawrence compiled a photographic history of Somerset C.C.C. in 1991 and has been the author of several other books relating to the county, but the record book was compiled by Nigel Johns. Lawrence died in 2010. Another publisher decided on a different approach. Spellmount, a small firm in Tunbridge Wells, commissioned Dean Hayes to write books containing the biographies of a selection of players from a given county. The series commenced with Lancashire Cricketing Greats in 1989. Hayes, who was born in Bolton in 1949, was a primary school headmaster and like Goodyear, began his sports history interest with soccer – especially Bolton Wanderers. Kent and Gloucestershire followed Lancashire in 1990 and Yorkshire appeared in 1991. The title then altered to Famous Cricketers of …. Essex appeared in 1991 under the new heading, with Middlesex in 1992. Glamorgan was published by Christopher Davies in 1996. The essays on the individual players in all these books were pleasant enough, but with little original research undertaken, the errors from previous works were often repeated. Like the four general histories noted the books added nothing to the information that many readers had already acquired – perhaps some of the illustrations were the main attraction.